Elon Musk is Surveillance Valley

by Yasha Levine

The latest outrage to hit the wire is that the board of Twitter has agreed to accept Elon Musk’s buyout proposal, which will give Elon full control of the company and allow him to take it private. There’s lots of howling all around, as if they sky is falling. If you ask me, Twitter — and social media in general — is garbage tech that mostly wastes our time and poisons our minds. But regardless of where you stand sale of Twitter to a Twitter-addicted oligarch, to me the deal just further proves the thesis of my book, Surveillance Valley. The Internet is an extension of the American Empire.

Elon Musk is Surveillance Valley (Archived)

Peter Thiel to Exit Meta’s Board to Support Trump-Aligned Candidates

Peter Thiel to Exit Meta’s Board to Support Trump-Aligned Candidates

Related:

International Finance’s Anti-China Crusade

Peter Thiel Once Wrote That Women Getting The Vote Was Bad For Democracy

Lord of the Roths: How Tech Mogul Peter Thiel Turned a Retirement Account for the Middle Class Into a $5 Billion Tax-Free Piggy Bank

Billionaire ‘philosopher king’ Peter Thiel loves monopolies — democracy not so much

Competition Is for Losers

Peter Thiel: Why Monopolies Are a Good Thing (video)

Why Billionaire Peter Thiel Opposes Direct Democracy

SpaceX Starlink satellites twice came too close, China tells UN chief

SpaceX Starlink satellites twice came too close, China tells UN chief

H/T: China Space Station conducted evasive manoeuvres to avoid collisions with Elon Musk’s Starlink statelites (archived)

What they leave out:

The Air Force And SpaceX Are Teaming Up For A ‘Massive’ Live Fire Exercise

SpaceX Starlink Impresses Air Force Weapons Buyer In Big Live-Fire Exercise

SpaceX Exec Says Company Would Launch A Weapon Into Space In ‘Defense Of This Country’

Peter Thiel Embodies Silicon Valley’s Conservative Past and Dystopian Future

Peter Thiel Embodies Silicon Valley’s Conservative Past and Dystopian Future

In August 2020, Thiel told Die Weltwoche that COVID-19 had created an opening. “Changes that should have taken place long ago did not come because there was resistance. Now the future is set free.” But the future desired by Thiel is one that involves less democracy, more restrictive immigration measures, and a tech industry even more aligned with the interests of the US government. Tech’s libertarian age is waning, but its future could be even worse.